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ReDressing Activism

Concept & Approach

Inspired by the activist organisations and culture, as well as the colours, food and architecture from field research in Hong Kong during January 2014, this outfit was created to highlight the global relationship between waste the actions of the designer, the industry, food production TT1. All exhibits aim to highlight the quantity of garments that are being thrown out each year in a context of a non-existing second-hand clothing market, and proposes waste reduction through demonstrating compelling strategies for upcycling TT10.

The shirt was co-created by Earley facilitating 8 industry designers in Hong Kong in January 2014 – at the ReDress Miele challenge workshop, an educational project to encourage HK designers to use recycled materials to their practices. It used traditional local food stuff TT6, a domestic iron, a second hand garment and transfer paper to create an upcycled monomaterial ‘designer’ garment TT2.

The skirt by Child draws influence from the dramatic HK skyline and colour palette to create a structured up-cycled garment made from clothing hand sourced from a local textile-recycling unit TT1. Child used her experience in a KTP at the Salvation Army to demonstrate to the HK designers and the ReDress winners the need to develop tactile skills to quickly find quality fabrics that will work together in terms of design and performance TT2.

Taking kitchenware and ingredients as inspiration, Harvey’s headpiece looks to the food culture of HK TT6. Hand dyed chopsticks tower upwards, with a netted veil of green, cream and black seeds draping down. Harvey’s shoes are made from wood, visually similar to traditional footwear of the area, taking the blocky but spacious urban skyline as inspiration and adding extra height to the outfit as a whole. Both the shoes and the headdress are designed and made to be dismantled and recycled, composted or upcycled post-user TT2.